Research
The Nottingham Centre for Children, Young People and Families seeks to inspire discovery, drive innovation, and deliver research with real-world impact.
Our research is interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing together colleagues from psychology, health, education, social work, law, criminology and youth justice, childhood and youth studies, and sociology.
Our academics have internationally recognised expertise in the major methodological approaches, from small-scale qualitative inquiries through to large-scale and complex statistical modelling.
We prioritise working with others through our commitment to Participatory Action Research, and to evaluation learning partnerships.
We can support the development of interventions with children, young people and families by providing robust and independent evaluation frameworks. We can also work together to seek funding for longer-term, exploratory and innovative collaborative research.
To find out more about how together we can produce research that makes a real difference, please contact us.
Research news from the Centre
Street Aware
Dr. Paul Hamilton, Rachel Harding, Dr. Jatinder Sandhu and Dr. Sarah McDonald have been studying a local knife, gun and gang crime prevention approach used in Nottingham called Street Aware. Street Aware is a classroom-based programme, delivered by Police Community Support Officers to year six students over three sessions. The aim is to educate and raise awareness about gun, knife and gang crime, with the hope of equipping young people with the knowledge to help them stay safe.
We wanted to find out if Street Aware was really making a difference at a local level and how well students actually recalled the sessions. Questionnaires were completed by several hundred students and focus groups were conducted with students in years seven and nine across six diverse schools in Nottingham. A report has been delivered to the Police and other key parties in order to decide how to develop Street Aware for future year groups. A film was also completed to capture what we found out about Street Aware. View this film.
Web-based research project to help explain the UK EU referendum to young voters
Professor Matt Henn, a member of the Nottingham Centre for Children, Young People and Families, has launched a new website with the University of East London to engage young people in the UK EU referendum. The website aims to give young voters the information that will aid and support them in making a decision in the run up to the referendum.
The Me & EU site, funded by The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), breaks down the complexities involved with the referendum and colourfully presents information on a range of topics. It features videos, blogs, a live stream of tweets, links to relevant research, and a questionnaire which aims to capture the voice of young people.
If you would like to be involved in spreading the word about this project, or would like more information about the website, please email Professor Matt Henn.
Safer Living Foundation: Circles of Support
Safer Living Foundation (SLF) is a charity established in 2014 by representatives from HMP Whatton, Nottingham Trent University, Nottinghamshire Police and the National Probation Service. The charity aims to protect potential victims of sexual abuse by setting up and running prevention and rehabilitation projects for convicted and potential sexual offenders at risk of sexual offending.
The SLF is setting up a new project providing Circles of Support and Accountability (COSAs) for young people displaying sexually harmful behaviour. Managed by a Project Coordinator, the Circle is a group of four specially recruited and trained volunteers from the community who meet regularly to support the young person. The Circle will focus on reducing the young person's social isolation, loneliness and impulsivity, which in turn should lead to feelings of belonging to communities, and increased investment in avoiding anti-social behaviour.
If you would like to become involved in this project as a volunteer or would like further information, please visit the Safer Living Foundation website.
Work with the Centre for Youth Impact
Dr Sarah McDonald worked with the Centre for Youth Impact on a project examining social investment in the youth sector. Our work looked at helping the youth sector to survive and thrive in the new investment environment. Social investment has become a key mechanism for charitable organisations and social enterprises to fund themselves. Learning to navigate the financial system and understanding the types of financial support available can be challenging for organisations unfamiliar with seeking funding. Furthermore, youth sector organisations occupy a very small proportion of the charitable and non-profit organisation market, and changes to funding sources might out them at risk of losing out to other sectors.
For more information please visit the Centre for Youth Impact website.
The street harassment experiences of children: 'TASC11to16' (Taking A Stand for Change for secondary school children aged eleven to sixteen years)
NTU's Health and Wellbeing Proof of Concept Fund of £19,851 was awarded for an interdisciplinary project led by Dr Lucy Betts (psychology), with Dr Sheine Peart (education), Dr David Wright (linguistics), Catarina Sjoilin Knight (law) and Rachel Harding (NCCYPF). The project investigated the ways in which children experience, report and process incidents of street harassment, with the aim that they can work together with schools, children and law enforcement on communicating the risks and ways to manage all kinds of harassment. The preliminary results were presented at the Nottingham Safer for Women national event September 2016, and extensive community links have been made with public and voluntary sector organisations who are interested in the work.
Find out more information on street harassment in our news archive.
